Dana,
First off, please accept some glowing praise from a visitor to your museum. I had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum several years ago and was not only so moved and humbled by the experience, but felt connected in a way I hadn't before to my own family's story and experiences during the Holocaust, an event that deeply impacted my grandfather.
I administer the Docent program here at The Museum of Flight. To allow to compare to your own program we have about 250 Docents on the roster, with about 175 active in any given week. Our Docents are stationed all around the Museum to provide spontaneous tours to interested visitors and also run more formal tours every 30 minutes or so from a central location into the various wings of the Museum. In addition, they provide tours for groups who have reserved a tour ahead of time through our sales department. Some Docents have additionally volunteered to help with school groups, and so they also lead tours for them.
Our program is open to all applicants, we do not have a pre-requisite of volunteer service. However, we do strongly encourage prospective Docents to volunteer in other capacities before moving on to the Docent program. We run a 13-week training course once a year, and if anyone inquires about becoming a Docent not in the month or so period we are running interview for that year's course we really, really advise them to sign up as a volunteer elsewhere in the Museum so they can start learning the lay of the land. The benefits are multifold, because not only do they get a chance to learn where the bathrooms are and get oriented in the Museum, but we can also gauge how they interact with visitors and their competency at other skills.
In order to become a Docent, a candidate must apply and then undergo an interview with myself (the staff member) and a member of the Docent Training Committee. If they are accepted, they still have to go through the training, where we do lose a few each year because they realize how big a time commitment it is or feel that are not a good fit for the position after all. It caps off with a practical test, giving a 30-minute and 60-minute tour, and a written exam which they must pass with a 95%.
I personally am against adding more constraints to our Docent program because already there are so many obstacles that you really can't be a Docent unless you are a retiree. There's nothing wrong with retirees, but this also means that there are a lot of very passionate, very knowledgeable voices who could add a lot of value to the visitor's experience who are pretty much blocked out.
I hope this answers some of your questions. If you are ever in Seattle and want to talk more, please let me know. As it happens, I'll also be in DC over the holidays and would be happy to visit you to chat some more and swap resources.
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Sean Mobley
Docent Services Specialist
Museum of Flight
Seattle WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-21-2017 01:16 PM
From: Dana Carroll
Subject: Museum Volunteer Docents
All
We currently train Museum Services Docents each year to provide tours for our school groups, LE, FBI etc. Currently our docents serve at least 1 year of volunteer service in Visitor Services and other departments throughout the Museum before they are eligible for our Docent program. Several Smithsonian Museums allow volunteers to apply directly for the Docent program. Our docent program involves extensive, multi-month training in order to become a Docent Volunteer.
Can you let me know how you bring on Volunteers for your docent programs? We are establishing a policy in conjunction with our Levine Institute for Holocaust Education.
Thanks in advance.
Dana
Dana Carroll United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Director of Museum Services
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW Washington DC 20024-2126
Office 202.488.6595 Cell 202.607.7222 Fax 202.488.6568
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